The End Of The World
by Mesalline
Summary: It's the end of the world. Or so it seems. Somethings come through the rift, but is this out of Torchwood's league?
1. Eggs and Warnings

_A/N: I haven't forgotten about my other fics. But i had this plot bunny in my head and i had to write it down. Please R & R and let me know if i should continue, thank you. The title may change later on. _

_Notes: "Fighter Command" Means, 'Scramble and drop everything' I belive it was used during the war, I maybe wrong though. "Boiled eggs" means 'run.' In code terms. _

_Disclaimer: If The characters of Torchwood were mine, Do you really think i would be sat here writing fanfiction? rolls eyes_

_On with the fic!_

"Fighter Command!" a voice barked down his ear piece. Jack swore and broke into a run. Fighter command was a phrase used during the war. It meant

'Scramble and drop everything.' Literally. It was not a phrase he liked to hear.

Jack heard a huge rumble behind him. It sounded like a volcano had gone off.

He shook his head in despair. Volcanoes in Cardiff?

He sprinted even faster, now running flat out, at a speed not many normal men could reach. But Captain Jack Harkness was not a normal man.

His heart felt like it was in his mouth, he could hear it pounding in his ears.

His limbs were beginning to tier, and his breath started to come in short sharp Gasps. But he couldn't stop running, not now. Not now he was so close.

He could see the SUV, it was mere feet away. Another rumble from behind him spurred him on. The rain pounded down, bouncing off his head and into his eyes. The SUV became a blur. He wasn't getting enough oxygen to his lungs, he realized.

Suddenly the ground started to shake and he was nearly thrown from his feet.

Huge cracks appeared in the pavement, slowly at first, and then before he knew it more cracks were appearing at alarming speeds. Cars and lamp posts were being dislodged and destroyed.

His mobile phone vibrated in his pocket. The message read:

"END OF THE WORLD."

"Shit," he muttered, putting his phone unceremoniously back in his pocket.

The SUV was so close, he was almost there. A huge crack came from behind him.

He fell-

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ianto took a sip of his coffee and sank down into Owens chrome swivel chair.

The rest of the team were out on a field mission and he- as usual- was left behind. Not that he minded, much. The last time he had gone in the field they'd all been captured by terrifying cannibals and nearly eaten alive. He shuddered at the memory.

Suddenly nearly every alarm in the hub went off at once. Ianto jumped and spilled his coffee all over himself and the floor. Cursing, he started tapping at the key board. It didn't take Ianto long to realize something big was happening. Something had gone wrong. Something bad. Alerts were still flashing everywhere. Ianto suddenly wished Tosh was there.

A huge message appeared on the screen. Ianto stared at it for a few seconds, and started cursing rapidly in welsh. Jack was not going to like this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was falling, and he couldn't stop it. His heart was pounding so hard against his ribs he was sure they would break. Hands appeared out of no where and grabbed him, pulling him back up and over the side of the crack in the pavement which he had fallen down.

Jack lay panting on the uneven road. Looking up he saw Owens face, hovering above his. He looked worried. Which wasn't surprising, really. "Okay?" he asked, helping Jack to his feet. "No, but give me a minute." Jack leaned over and rested his hands on his knees, trying to get his breath back. Owen placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Boiled eggs," Owen muttered in Jacks ear. Jack looked up in alarm, but Owen was already sprinting towards the SUV. Cursing, Jack followed him.

Finally he reached the SUV, grabbing the handle he heaved open the driver's door. Huge cracks were still appearing every where; each crack was bigger than the last. The rumbles had subsided, but Jack didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing at the moment. Jack leaned his head back against the head rest and momentarily closed his eyes.

"So," Owen gasped. "On a scale of one to ten."

Jack opened his eyes and glanced side ways at him.

"One being the lowest and ten being the highest, you mean?" Jack panted back.

Owen nodded.

"Twenty bloody seven."

Jack floored the accelerator.

_There we go. I really enjoyed writing that actually, and i'm proud of myself for staying away from angst :D I'd really love a review...see that little button there? Clicking that would make me very very happy XD Thanks. _


	2. Beef Stroganoff and Rubix Cubes

_A/N: I should probably have mentioned in a disclaimer in the earlier chapter that i took the idea for "Fighter command" and "Boiled eggs" from the torchwood book, Border Princes. I loved the book and i'm trying to re capture the authors writing style. Please review and let me know what you think. _

John Tucker was running. Why, he wasn't really sure. He just knew that he had to get away; from whatever it was he was running from. He was in a blind panic; the world was collapsing around him.

It seemed strange to him, that only an hour ago he was sat behind his work station at the local lawyer's office waiting for his shift to finish. Now, he was running for his life.

John Tucker was an ordinary bloke; he had a wife and three kids. He had short brown hair and dark brown eyes; his skin was tanned as though he had just been abroad on holiday. He wore a smart pin-striped brown suit and a long brown Mac. His suit, which had just come back from the dry cleaners that morning, was now ruined.

He turned the corner and vaulted over a rail as huge cracks appeared beneath his feet. Sprinting down a dark ally-way, he heard a huge rumble, but it wasn't behind him, as it had been before. It sounded closer, much closer. If he hadn't known any better he would have said it was thunder. But Thunder didn't cause cracks in concrete. Not normal Thunder, anyway.

He turned right and found shelter under a small bridge. A stream ran down one side of the bridge, the water echoed eerily around the walls. Whilst he was catching his breath he leant back against the cold stone wall. Something caught his eye. He straightened up and walked to the other end of the tunnel, his footsteps sounded much louder than usual.

He came to a halt when he saw what the thing was that caught his eye. It was small, roughly the shape of a rubix cube. It was jet black apart from one square that had just lit up blue. A few seconds later, another square lit up. John knelt down and reached out to pick the object up. It was cold in his hand, but seemed to warm up the longer he held it. A third square lit up blue and a huge pulse forced itself out of the cube. John Tucker was dead before he hit the floor.

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Gwen glanced over her shoulder as she heard the front door slam shut. She relaxed when she realized it was Rhys.

"Hey," she smiled and went back to her cooking. Rhys walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned forwards over her shoulder to look at the contents in the pan.

"Looks good," he complimented. "What is it?"

Gwen chuckled. "Beef Stroganoff. Sort of."

Rhys frowned. "Sort of?"

"Well, we didn't have some of the ingredients...So I, err, improvised?"

Rhys laughed and kissed her. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be good. I'll pop the Kettle on."

Rhys talked animatedly about his day over the noise of the Kettle and the gentle clinking of china cups, but Gwen was miles away. "...And Barry's invited us over for tea on Saturday. He says Marge will be insufferable if we don't go. He's rented out Monty Python apparently. So it shouldn't be as bad as last time with Marge showing us a photo album of her Cat. I think I'd go mad if I saw another picture of 'Mr Snuffles' sat on a wall when he was one. Are you listening to me?"

Gwen jumped and nearly spilt the contents of the pan all over the floor. "Yes love. Barry's on Saturday."

Rhys sighed and opened his mouth to reply but was distracted by a loud click from the Kettle.

"Honestly Gwen," he said as he poured the steaming water into two cups. "I don't know if you take any notice of me anymore. It's like I'm talking to myself. I wouldn't mind, but it is getting a bit annoying."

Gwen sighed. "I'm sorry. I was miles away."

Rhys handed her a cup of tea. "I don't mind. I really don't. Just so long as you actually want to be here."

Gwen looked up, surprised. "What makes you think I don't want to be here?"

"Well- the fact that whenever your phone goes off, you're out the door and I don't see you till the next day! I don't know where you go- or what you do. Like that time you came home and you looked like you'd seen a ghost! You wouldn't tell me what was wrong, _you don't tell me anything_!" Rhys snarled the last few words.

"Love, of course I want to be here. You know me. Do you think I'd stay if I didn't want to be here?"

Rhys lowered his gaze to the floor, ashamed of his sudden out burst.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "But we never get any time to our selves-"

Gwen cut him off. "I'm here now." She hugged him.

"But Torchwood'll ring and you'll have to go to this fancy job of yours and that's our evening ruined!"

Gwen smiled "We'll I've got the evening off. Torchwood promised."

"The whole evening?" Rhys raised his eyebrows skeptically. Gwen nodded.

"The whole evening," she repeated. Behind her the pan started to smoke.

"Dinners ready." Said Rhys. "I'm gonna get changed." He headed over to the bedroom while Gwen prepared the dinner. By the time he had changed out of his suit, Gwen had the table laid out.

A red candle sat in the middle of the two dinners, one at each end. The 'Artic Monkeys' were playing quietly in the corner.

"This is Romantic," said Rhys as he sat down. "We should do this more often."

Half way into the meal, Gwen's phone rang. Rhys looked up sharply, a frown forming on his face.

Gwen shifted nervously in her chair. "Ignore it, Gwen."

Gwen looked apologetically as she reached for her bag. "Sorry..."

Rhys sighed. "If that's bloody Torchwood Gwen-"

The message read:

"TORCHWOOD: END OF THE WORLD. POSSIBLY."

Gwen glanced up at Rhys nervously.

"Well?" he demanded.

"I'm sorry; I know I said I had the night off..."

Rhys stood up angrily. "You're not going Gwen! You said they promised you the night off!"

Gwen stood facing Rhys, her expression one of determination and sympathy.

"I'm sorry. It sounds serious...I've got to go!"

As she crossed the room to the front door, she caught a glimpse of Rhys disappointed face before the door clicked shut behind her.


	3. The good, The bad, and the Ugly

_A/N: The next part up :D _

_Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! I hope you all like this chapter XD _

_TWTWTWTWTWTWTW_

"_Jack!_" Ianto's voice crackled into life through the loud speakers on Jack's phone.

"Ianto," he said. "It's good to here those beautiful Welsh vowels-"

"Sir," Ianto cut him off. He sounded terrified. _This is not going to be good_, he thought. He had no idea how right he was.

"I've got some news sir. Ranging from good, to bad, to ugly."

Jack grinned. The good the bad and the ugly. He loved that film.

"I'm a good news kinda guy," he drawled, choosing to ignore Owens snort of laughter.

"OK. I got some readings on our scanners. They all pin-point to one location. Theirs a centre and then lots of smaller readings seem to spiral off in different directions. I'd bet my Coffee it's what's causing the shock waves around the city."

The car suddenly shook violently, and Jack fought to keep control of the steering wheel. Jack let out a shout of surprise when a huge crack appeared out of no where in the middle of the road. He swung the steering wheel round, spinning the car a full 90 degrees to avoid falling down the abyss that was forming in front of them. Jack slammed on the breaks to avoid crashing into a wall. Owen swore violently as his shoulder collided with the window of the SUV.

"Looks like someone else agrees with you to, Ianto." Said Jack darkly.

Owen was still muttering a colourful arrangement of swear words under his breath and clutching his shoulder.

"So this location?" he said, ignoring Owen.

"Ah yes, I was getting to that. I think it's-"

"Woah woah woah, wait a minute. You _think_?" Jack was starting to get irritated. At Torchwood you weren't allowed to just 'think' something. You had to be dead cert. Other wise it'd be someone else who ended up dead.

"Well this is Toshiko's job I'm doing!" Ianto huffed. "Not really my area-"

"Yes yes, all right already!" Jack roared down the phone. "Just give us the goddamn location!"

"You know the park, just off the Bay? Popular with parents and kids. It's got a little stream running down the side with duckies-"

Jack sighed in exasperation. Ianto got the hint.

"Well anyway. If my memory serves me correctly, theirs a little bridge at the far end of the park. The readings came from round that area. But I only got the readings for a split second. It's like something happened and the shock waves changed frequency. They were under Torchwood's radar, remember?"

Jack did remember.

"Okay, thanks Ianto. And the bad news…?" he knew he'd regret asking this question. He should have just slammed the phone down before Ianto could tell him.

On the other end of the line, Ianto shuffled on his feet nervously and glanced up at the message on his screen.

"I got a message from the government-"

"The Government? What the hell do they want? Tell them we're busy!" Jack snarled.

Owen fought to choke back a laugh.

"It's more of an SOS call, to be exact." Ianto paused. "They say they're under attack. They reckon they've been infiltrated-"

"Tell them to call UNIT-" Jack snarled the last word. UNIT were always getting in the way of Torchwoods classified investigations. Ianto rolled his eyes.

"They say they did call UNIT but they got forwarded to voice-mail."

Jack grinned. In spite of everything, Ianto could still crack a joke.

Ianto glanced back up to the monitor and sobered up.

"They reckon UNIT have been infiltrated too. They can't get hold of them. Seems UNIT and the Government are both having the same problem." Ianto sighed. "It won't be long until there won't be any Government; or UNIT. And, as much as we hate them, the country can't function without them. You can probably see the plan forming, here…"

Jack groaned. Why did the world always have to end on his shift?

"Okay, thanks Ianto. We'll clear up here and then deal with that little problem later." He hesitated. His gut feeling told him he really didn't want to hear the ugly news.

"…And…the ugly?" Jack felt Owen stiffen beside him.

"We're out of Coffee."

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

Gwen was five minutes away from the hub. She swore as the traffic lights turned red. The car suddenly shook violently. Alarmed, she fumbled for her hand bag, trying to get to her phone. All around her people had scrambled out of their cars, screaming. One stupid man was running around waving his hands in the air and bellowing "EARTH QUAKE! EARTH QUAKE!" Gwen sighed in exasperation, wishing she had her stun-gun (as named by Ianto) at hand.

Her mobile started ringing just as she found it at the bottom of her bag.

"TORCHWOOD" was displayed on the screen.

She flipped up the lid. "Jack," she said.

"Nope. Would you rather speak to him?" said Owen indignantly.

"We have a problem. Meet us by the park just round the corner from the Bay. The one with 'little duckies' according to Ianto the genius. I'll fill you in on the way."

Gwen changed course, and listened in shock at what had happened. She couldn't believe it, she'd had the morning off, and it seemed like it was the beginning of the end of the world.

"So, what is this? The End of the World? Or the End of Cardiff?" she asked.

Owen shrugged. "Both? I dunno, Gwen. One seems to Coincide with the other."

"Okay, I'll be there in five." She sighed and threw the phone down onto the passenger seat.

She'd fallen out with Rhys, _again_. The world (_or just Cardiff,_) she reminded herself, seemed to be crumbing around her. The lights in front of her switched to amber and she floored the accelerator.

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

Jack jumped out of the SUV, Owen hot on his heels. Jack was carrying a small metal box. It was solid metal, with metal blots securing the sides together and chains for extra security. There was more to this box than meets the eye. The team had often questioned Jack about it, as he had never opened it in front of any of them before. But this box was special to the Captain; it was one link to his past, even if it was just a small piece of technology that might seem insignificant to the next person.

Owen and Jack hurtled through the park; Owen had drawn his hand gun all ready.

"What's with the box, Captain?" panted Owen.

Jack grinned. "All in good time."

They soon reached the bridge that Ianto had described. Owen glanced around the park in confusion. Jack raised a questioning eye brow at him.

"I'm not seeing those duckies Ianto mentioned." He said.

Jack barked out a laugh. "'C'mon." he said, turning to the tunnel. He didn't get very far.

"_Jesus Christ_!" Jack yelled and broke into a run.

It soon became clear to Owen what had shocked Jack. A man lay sprawled out on the floor, pin-striped brown trench coat dripping in mud, brief case flung to the other side of the tunnel. Owen hunkered down to the dead man's level.

"No vital life sign's." he said after checking for a pulse. He lifted up the mans eye lids. There was no reaction. Owen shook his head and closed the mans eyes.

"Another life lost," he said sadly. "How many more?"

Jack took this as a rhetorical question, because it was one he didn't want to answer.

Something glinted in the light and caught Jack's eye. He crouched down next to Owen.

"Check this out," he said, his voice echoing ten fold around the small tunnel.

"What is it? Some kind of funky Rubix Cube?" Owen asked.

"_Jack! Owen!_"

They both looked round at the sound of hurried footsteps and a familiar voice. It was Gwen.

"Sorry I'm late," she panted. "Traffic was awful. And there was some loser running around shouting about Earth Quakes, and- What's in the box?" Gwen paused for a breath. She'd been talking helter-skelter speed and had left both Jack and Owen speechless.

"More to the point," she said crouching down to the other men's levels.

"What's this?" she picked up the little black Rubix cube. She didn't hear Jack's scream.

A little blue square had lit up. It felt comfy and warm in her hand. Inviting. She stared at it, hypnotised. A second blue light lit up, and the cube got a little bit warmer.

A third square lit up.

"_Gwen!_"


End file.
